Spelling: Breaking down the Barrier

Spelling: What Doesn't Work

•Prepackaged weekly spelling test

Traditional approaches to teaching spelling meet with little success. The students learn the words for the weekly test and still misspell the words in their next composition (Freeman & Freeman, 2004). Children can be successful at weekly spelling activities and not apply these to their own writing (Hughes & Searle, 2000). You can't meet the needs of all students with one spelling list (Manning, 2004).

•Correcting all the spelling for the students

The most important thing a student learns when a teacher grades a paper and corrects all the mistakes (even if it is in red) is that someone else will correct the mistakes for him. He doesn't have to put forth the effort to find his own errors (Clark, 1987).